Sam sat alone waiting for his mother to come home. It had got late today. She would usually come around 4, but today it had got late. He tried to reach her mobile. The landline seemed to be out of order. His parents had given him a small Nokia phone to keep in touch in such circumstances, but he had misplaced it. May be he could call her on teams, the app with which sometimes he would message her when in school. The ringtone went, but her mom did not reply. By the time she reached home an hour late, Sam was in tears. What had happened to her mom? She was a doctor. Had she got Corona? He didn’t even know what this virus did but all he knew many people were dying in Italy and cases were rising. All these fears had been lurking in his mind for the last one hour.
Covid 19 had changed the world. Ever since the virus creeped outside the wet market of Wuhan, it had been creating waves, which had been crashing down people, families, economies and everything else what came in the way.
They had a vacation planned to Europe in the month of March. He had always wanted to go to Europe. He wanted to see Snowfall, he wanted to see in real the videos he see on Youtube, and Covid had got his vacation dishevelled. At first Sam had been happy. It had been the last day of his exams in grade 6. He had come home thrilled. Not even a week more to bear!
“Thank you Corona, No more school till we fly off to Europe!” Sam had cried this till he slept. What was more delightful, was the fact that schools wouldn”t open till mid april. For the next few days, mom didn’t ask to study even. Exams were over. He watched a lots of movies, videos, played a lot on Playstation.
“It’s not safe to travel.”
“What if we fall sick where we go and then if we get stuck at airport” He heard Mom and Dad talking. Covid had spread via Italy to europe and many countries had started putting travel restrictions.
“We will lose a lot of money though.” Dad replied.
The crux of the discussion was that they cancelled the trip 3 days before they were to fly. Austria had closed its borders and so had Czech republic on the day of the flight.
“Coronavirus – you suck ! I love travelling and I like when my mom and dad are around. It’s so much fun.” This time, it was a whisper and though Sam carried on with his life, he was not delighted.
Soon, the cases started increasing in the country he lived. They stopped going to movies and restaurants. At first, he would go down to play with his gully friends in the evenings. Soon, the governments everywhere including where he lived started putting restrictions and children stopped playing in the evenings. It also meant mom and dad busier and Sam didn’t even cry foul.
” Do you have a patient in your ICU, Dad?” Sam asked his papa.
“Yes” he had replied.
He sensed his Dad more tense in the coming weeks. Mom too avoided kissing Sam or giving him a hug when she came back from work.
Sam didn’t like covid anymore. He wanted to go out and play.
“Work from home” He read in the newspaper. He was thrilled but soon realized his parents are frontliners in this war against covid. His best friend Karen had both his parents working from home. He was jealous. For him, It meant lonely days ahead.
It is my first season with #MyFriendAlexa and i am going to talk how children sensed the changes in the world due to covid in the last few months.
I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s My friend Alexa. https://www.theblogchatter.com/
The Vagabond 
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